Botham brushes aside 'burnout' talk

England cricket great Sir Ian Botham has dismissed talk of "burnout" by members of the current squad as so much hot air and advised them instead to concentrate their fire on South Africa.

Botham believes the likes of all-rounder Stuart Broad don't have much of a case when complaining about their workload given current England regulars play hardly any other cricket compared to the county matches in which players of 'Beefy's' generation took part in alongside their international duties.

England are now in South Africa where they play two Twenty20s, five one-day internationals and four Tests, in addition to warm-up games.

The New Year sees England off to Bangladesh before heading to the Caribbean for the World Twenty20.

They then return home for series against Bangladesh and Pakistan.

But Botham, speaking here on Tuesday as he unveiled plans for a 13th charity walk in aid of leukaemia research, said present-day players had little cause for moaning about schedules considering how well they were paid.

"Analyse the days of cricket these boys play in a year as opposed to the guys who used to play county cricket as well as international cricket and went on tours lasting four months.

"If you are worried about burnout in your second year then that's pretty sad," Botham added.